Joaquin Fuster, a physician and researcher at the UCLA Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, collects $296,555.

Donald Gerth, former president of California State University, Sacramento. He collects $278,054 and is now a member of the master's program in “Public Policy and Administration.”

James Stahl, formerly chief engineer and general manager for the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, he enjoys a yearly benefit of $265,740.

John Schlag, M.D. - a former neurobiology professor at UCLA, collects $255,600.

Raymond Patchett, former city manager of Carlsbad, is collecting $239,635.

Kenneth Bollier, former president of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, collects $222,489.

Jim Ruth, former city manager of Anaheim, collects $219,045.

James Butts, ex-Santa Monica police chief, collects $218,868. He now is head of security at Los Angeles International Airport and Ontario International Airport, earning $186,876.

Timothy Riley, former Newport Beach fire chief, collects $214,600.

George Kennedy, former district attorney of Santa Clara County, collects $211,596.

Bruce V. Malkenhorst, Sr., who was Vernon's city manager, finance director, city clerk, redevelopment director, treasurer and chief of light and power, all at the same time - tops the list at $499,674.

Loopholes and lucrative increases in pensions approved by municipal agencies have created an unequal state retirement system in which half the pensioners make $15,948 a year or less, while the top 1 percent make more than $100,000.

An Orange County Register examination of California Public Employees’ Retirement System records shows that 4,817 of the 476,000 retirees in the system make more than $100,000, and 24 have pensions in excess of $200,000.

This comes at a time when the value of CalPERS’ investments have fallen by 28 percent – and the agency’s assets have dropped by about $73 billion.

“The trend is, if we don’t get more money, there is a risk of insolvency,” said pension watchdog and Sacramento accountant Marcia Fritz, a member of the California Federation for Fiscal Responsibility.

Edward Fong, spokesman for CalPERS, said he prefers to take an optimistic view of the market, which could bounce back in a few years.

“It’s a pendulum that goes back and forth. We look at the long term,” Fong said.

If the bank gets broken, it will not be because of the average CalPERS retiree, who earns $23,820 a year, critics say. It will be because of police, fire and other workers who get lucrative pensions worth as much as their salaries, all guaranteed by the taxpayer.

It also will be because of the high-end managers who garner salaries in excess of $200,000 and – in many cases – shepherded the public safety retirement raises and collected the same for themselves, critics say.

Of the 351 Orange County retirees who make $100,000 or more, nearly two thirds were public safety workers.

A Register examination of the top pensioners also shows that:

• Rogue municipalities can spike employee’s pensions to astronomical rates. As an example, the 5.5-square-mile Los Angeles County city of Vernon, population 110, paid a politically connected insider, Bruce Malkenhorst Sr., $600,000 a year to serve in six different capacities at once, spiking his pension to $499,674. Malkenhorst is currently fighting a criminal indictment charging him with embezzling $60,000 for such things as massages.

Generous years-of-service clauses allow officials to ring up huge pensions; then retire and take another government job while drawing the pension. An example is former Anaheim City Manager Jim Ruth, who retired in 2001 on a pension of $219,045,then went on to serve another year as a consultant to the city for $192,000. Ruth later did a stint as Orange County’s chief executive and, currently, is the county sanitation district chief: Annual salary: $225,000. Between retirement and salary, he makes $444,000.

Retirements often are used as escape hatches when officials run into trouble. For instance, Art Simonian, 28-year city manager of Yorba Linda, was suspended in August 1999 amid accusations by the city council that he doled out $600,000 in unapproved bonuses to himself and others. After a bitter 10-month feud, Simonian agreed to resign with $200,293 in severance. He continues to receive $173,204 in retirement pay.

“It seems unfair. People who retired 20 years ago are getting small pensions. I have friends in their 70s who are doing substitute teaching because their pensions aren’t enough,” said Jack Dean, a pension-reform advocate who runs the website, pensiontsunami.com. “The (more recent) government employees managed to ‘steal their benefits’ fair and square because of deals they made with elected officials.”

There was a time when public service wages – as well as the pensions – were moderate, but reliable. Government workers knew their benefits were protected, no matter what happened in the market. Then salaries started rising as municipalities tried to compete with the private sector.

And, beginning in 1999, state legislators and local municipalities approved major pensionincreases – allowing police and fire officials to retire as early as age 50 with 3 percent of their pay for every year of service. Under that “3 at 50” formula, a cop or firefighter gets a pension equal to his pay after 34 years.Public safety unions aggressively pushed for the benefits – to the point that nearly every police department in California now offers it. General employees also got a generous bump, but not as lucrative as public safety workers received.

Many larger municipalities have their own pension systems, independent of CalPERS. Most Orange County employees, for instance, are covered by the Orange County Employees’ Retirement System, which also pays “3 at 50” to public safety workers.

Police and fire representatives contend the benefits are a small price to pay for the risks they take every time they put on the uniform. They also argue that their departments must offer the benefits to remain competitive with other agencies. And they doubt that their pensions are enough to bankrupt CalPERS or their employers.

“I cannot fathom a city, or a county or the state would give something that they absolutely could not afford,” said Ron Cottingham, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California.

Cottingham also noted that most officers contribute to their own retirement plans. But The Register found that in many municipalities across the state, including Buena Park, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, this is not true: The city covers the employees’ share of the pension costs.

Cities in Orange County say they are concerned that the economic downturn mixed with the generous benefits will come back to bite their budgets. Many expect their payments to CalPERS to rise by 5 percent within the next two years. In Buena Park, 43 percent of the police payroll is spent on pensions. Counting the employees’ share, which the city also pays, and a five percent increase, that number could hit 57 percent in two years.

“It’s ‘oh-my-god’ for every city. We’re not in a unique situation,” said Sung Hyun, Buena Park finance director. “We’re going to have to figure out a way to restructure our budget.”

With a judge ruling against Orange County’s efforts to take back some of the benefits it gave to sheriff’s deputies, the answer may lie in cutting pensions to future employees or trimming public services.

“We’re going to have to start making decisions,” said Fullerton pension watchdog Jack Dean. “We’ll have to cut back on services or sell a baseball field to fund pensions.”

Ruth, the former Anaheim city manager, worked for more than 50 years but didn’t start making big money until he retired. Even he says the system needs to be harnessed.

“We’re at a point, now, I think there’s going to have to be some changes to the system.”

Tony Saavedra is an investigative reporter specializing in legal affairs for the Orange County Register. His work has been recognized by the National Headliner Club, the Associated Press Sports Editors, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association and the Orange County Press Club. His stories have led to the closure of a chain of badly-run group homes, the end of a state program that placed criminals in inappropriate public jobs and the creation of a civilian oversight office for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, among other things. Saavedra has covered the Los Angeles riots, the O.J. Simpson case, the downfall of Orange County Sheriff-turned felon Michael S. Carona and the use of unauthorized drugs by Olympian Carl Lewis. Saavedra has worked as a journalist since 1979 and has held positions at several Southern California newspapers before arriving at the Orange County Register in 1990. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton, in 1981 with a bachelor of arts in communication.

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